The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Osteospermum plant, botanically known as Osteospermum ecklonis and referred to by the cultivar name Arctur.
The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Gensingen, Germany. The objective of the breeding program was to create new Osteospermum cultivars with early flowering, good branching and improved summer performance.
The new cultivar originated from a cross made by the Inventor of the Osteospermum ecklonis cultivar Sunny Boy, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent and an unnamed proprietary selection of Osteospermum ecklonis as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Osteospermum was selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of this cross in a controlled environment in Gensingen, Germany, in the summer of 1994.
Plants of the new cultivar are different from plants of the female parent, the cultivar Sunny Boy, in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the Osteospermum are more compact than plants of the cultivar Sunny Boy.
2. Plants of the new Osteospermum are more freely branching than plants of the cultivar Sunny Boy.
3. Plants of the new Osteospermum flower about two weeks earlier than plants of the cultivar Sunny Boy.
4. Plants of the new Osteospermum have more pointed ray florets than plants of the cultivar Sunny Boy.
5. Plants of the new Osteospermum have shorter peduncles than plants of the cultivar Sunny Boy.
Plants of the new cultivar are different from plants of the male parent, the unnamed proprietary selection of Osteospermum ecklonis, in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Osteospermum are larger than plants of the unnamed proprietary selection of Osteospermum ecklonis.
2. Plants of the new Osteospermum have larger inflorescences than plants of the unnamed proprietary selection of Osteospermum ecklonis.
3. Lower surfaces of ray florets of the new Osteospermum are purple gray in color whereas lower surfaces of ray florets of the unnamed proprietary selection of Osteospermum ecklonis are not purple gray in color.
4. Plants of the new Osteospermum have shorter peduncles than plants of the unnamed proprietary selection of Osteospermum ecklonis.
Asexual propagation of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings and by tissue culture at Gensingen, Germany, has shown that the unique features of this new Osteospermum are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.